The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1897, Page 8

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8 The Lutheran Pioneer.

The Outlook from the Editor’s Window.

— One of our exchanges says: ‘‘Many a
pitiful story is brought out in the police
courts of a great city. Perhaps one of the sad-
dest the newspapers in New York have ever
reported came from Jefferson Market Court
last week. A poor mother dropped dead
at the feet of the son who had been a dis-
grace to her. This son was a young man of
thirty or so: Instead of helping his aged
mother, he spent what little he earned in
drink. At last the poor woman determined
to have him committed as an habitual drunk-
ard, hoping that such a step would be for his
good. She was called to the witness stand to
swear to the complaint, but the effort was too
much for her, and she died with the words on
her lips, ‘It’s breaking my heart.’ How many
wicked children are breaking their parents’
hearts !”’

— Is the year 1843 there were six Christian
converts in China. Now there are 500 organ-
ized churches with about 60,000 communi-
cants, and the number of baptized persons is
reckoned at from 90,000 to 100,000. These
converts, who are mostly very poor, con-
tribute $40,000 yearly to church and school.
Not a few of them, during the troubles and
oppressions which befell the Church of Christ
last year, endured with patience and stead-
fastness the spoiling of their goods and ill-

“treatment of every kind, some even witness-
ing a good confession by a martyr’s death.
During the last ten years the number of Chris-
tians in China has doubled itself every five
years; and if the same rate of progress is
maintained, the whole of China will be Chris-.
tianized in less than 100 years. And yet what
has been accomplished is only a drop in the
ocean. Out of the 980 chief cities of China,
only 80 are the seat of evangelical missions.

—Tue Moravians report 150 mission sta-
tions, 400 missionaries, 234 day schools with
22,000 scholars, 110 Sunday schools and
93,000 converts in foreign lands. ‘These re-
markable statistics show the church abroad
to be three times the size of the church at
home.

—Awx American missionary on the Congo
in Africa gives a terrible account of the atro-
cities perpetrated by the Congo state officials.
He says that while he was preaching recently
to a crowd that had been collecting rubber
all day for the State, some soldiers seized a
man in the throng, announced that they in-
tended to shoot him because he had brought
in no rubber that day, bound him hand and
foot and shot him through the head. At
another village, a day later, Mr. Sjoblom

~ Says that several persons were murdered by

the soldiers, because they had not been able
to bring in the full amount of rubber re-
Quired. He adds that more natives are ill-
” treated or murdered in the far interior than
‘elsewhere, because there are no missionaries
there to make these crimes known at home.

—Japan is the land without domestic ani-
mals. It is this lack which strikes the stranger
so forcibly in looking upon Japanese land-
scapes. There are no cows; the Japanese
neither drink milk nor eat meat. There are
but few horses, and these are imported mainly
for the use of foreigners. ‘The freight cars
in the streets are pulled and pushed by cool-
ies, and the carriages are drawn by men.
There are but few dogs, and these are neither
used as watch dogs, beasts of burden, nor
in hunting. ‘There are no sheep, and wool
is not used in clothing, silk and cotton being
the staples. There are no pigs; pork is an
unknown article of diet, and lard is not used
in cooking. ‘There are no goats or mules or
donkeys.

—A Man who boasted that he believed
neither in a God, hell nor the devil, received
a merited rebuke the other day from Judge
Truax, in the Superior court of New York.
The man was being examined as to his fitness
to serve on a jury when he made his state-
ment. When Judge Truax had heard the
man proclaim himself an infidel he gave him
a paper of dismissal with the endorsement,
‘Excused on the ground that he is not men-
tally qualified to act as juror.’’

—A Norwecian Lutheran, writing about
the Norwegian pioneers in Cass Co., Minn.,
pictures their condition in the following man-
ner: ‘‘In these immense forests our country-
men have settled down in small and scattered
parties. They live as did the old Norsemen
centuries ago. The ax and the mattock are
their chief instruments. Plows they do not
use, because they have none. Many are with-
out oxen and horses. Small patches of ground
are prepared with spade and mattock and
sown with rye or beans. The crop is threshed
in the house with a flail. A primitive feed-
mill is placed outside the house, and this also
serves the purpose of a gristmill. ‘Threshing,
grinding, and baking can all be done almost
simultaneously, as illustrated by the follow-
ing occurrence: In the last part of October,
*95, I came, late one evening, to one of our
dear forest-dwellers. The good people did not
expect me and were not well prepared to re-
ceive the pastor. The husband was buey at
work threshing his rye, and the children en-
joyed themselves immensely frolicking in the
straw. Supper must be prepared, but not
a morsel of bread was found in the house.
This want, however, was easily remedied.
The good housewife winnows a basin full of
rye just threshed, brings it to the mill, grinds
it, makes dough, places it in the oven, and in
about 14 hour supperis ready. Within this | P
short time everything had been done: thresh-
ing, grinding, and baking. Practical people,
these forest-dwellers!”

—JAPAN a8 an empire is as yet very far from
being a Christian country, as some enthusiasts
want to have it proclaimed. Buddha will get
& new statue as a reward for his mighty pro-
tection in the war with China. It will be

erected at Kiyoto; it will be 120 feet high,
all of brass provided by Chinese guns, and it
will cost one million dollars.

—Tnue mission among the Lapps in north-
ern Norway, is prospering. A new missionary;
Rev. Tandberg, lately ordained in Troms6, has
just entered upon his work. ‘The translation
of the Bible, which has been prosecuted now
for over a century, is just finished.

Old Alice.

Mrs. Gaskell tells of old Alice, who had
become deaf and nearly blind, that this is-the
beautiful thing she said to Mary Barton:
‘“‘You’re mourning for me, my dear, and
there’s no need. I am happy asachild. I
sometimes think I am a child whom the Lord
is hush-a-by-ing to my long sleep. For when
I was a nurse girl, my missus always telled
me to speak very low and soft, to darken the
room, that her little one might go to sleep.
Now to me all noises are hushed and still, and
the bonnie earth seems dim and dark, and I~
know it is my Father lulling me to my long
sleep.’’ As the bird in the darkened cage
sings merrily, so such souls are filled with
“the peace of God that passeth understand-
ing.’’ —Ex.

Acknowledgment.

The undersigned herewith gratefully acknowl-
edges the receipt of $1.40 for the building-fand
of Greensboro Chapel from Mrs. Mary A. Doswell,
a member of our Colored Mission at Meherrin, Va.
May God’s richest blessings attend the eo

Evangelical Tatheran’ Colored cuerehen
NEw ORLEans, La.

EV. LUTH. ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL.
113 Annette Str., between Claiborne and Dirbigny.

Divine services: Sunday morning at EE o'clock.

Sunday evening at 7 ck.

Wednesday evening at ee o’clock.
Sunday School: Sunday morning at 9% o ‘clock.
Singing School at 74 o'elock Monday evenin; ng.

F. J. LANKENAU, Missionary.

EY. LUTH. MT. ZION CHURCH.
Cor. Franklin and Thalia Strs.
Divine services at 7}4 Sunday evening and at 74 Thurs-
day evening.
Sunday School meets at 9 o'clock.
Adult catechumen class mects at 744 Tucsday evoning.
E. W. Kuss, Missionary.

EV. LUTH. BETHLEHEM CHAPEL.
Cor. Washington Avenue and Dryades Str.
Divine services at 7% o'clock Sunday evening and at 74
o’clock Thursday evening.
Sunday School at 9 ceclooks
J. W. F. KosSSMANN, Missionary.

Evy. Luth. Holy Trinity Church.

Springfleld, Il.
Divine Services at half past 10 ©.clos Sunday morning
and at 8 o’clock Sunday evening.
Sunday School at 3 o'clock r. M.
Catechumen class meets Monday and Friday evenings.
Singing-school Tuesday evening.

TERMS:
Tne LurHeran Pioneer is published monthly,
ayable in advance at the following rates, postage
as uded, to-wit:

50 9.00

Club rates only allowed if all copies are to be sent

to one address.
All business communications to be addressed to

“Concordia Publishing House,” St. Louis, Mo.

All communications concerning the editorial de-
Pement to be addressed to Prof. R. A. Bisciorr,

mcordia College, Fort Wayne, Ind.