The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1898, Page 8

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

The Outlook from the Editor’s Window.

—Tne Rev. Dr. Day, the self-denying
General Synod missionary in Africa, departed
his life December 17, 1897. Suffering from
a severe attack of African fever, he was on
his way home. While the ship was nearing
the harbor of New York, his soul entered into
the haven of eternal rest. He is said to have
braved the climate of Africa longer than any
other missionary in that field.

—KEanr ty in the history of Madagascar mis-
sions, after a number of converts had been
gathered into the church, the captain of a ves-
sel who was a Christian, asked a converted
chief what had persuaded him to become a
Christian. ‘‘Was it a special sermon or a
particular book that became an occasion for
your conyersion?”’ ‘‘Not that, my friend,”
replied the chief, ‘‘it was something entirely
different. I observed that one was a thief,
another a drunkard, and still another a wife-
beater; but now they are no longer a thief,
or a drunkard, or a wife-beater, but decent
and upright people. Every convert seemed
to have received something within him that
made an entirely different person of him.
I noticed this and determined, if possible, to
get this mysterious power within myself.”
The old chief was a close observer and an
earnest thinker. The Gospel is the power of
God unto salvation to every one that believeth.

— Last year Missionaries Escande and Min-
ault, sent out by a French Protestant mis-
sionary society, were murdered in Madagascar
while they were eagerly pressing forward to
their field of labor. A day of fasting and
prayer was fittingly observed by the Protestant
churches of France. A general awakening in
mission interest has followed. Quite a number
of pastors and students have offered them-
selves to the missionary committee to go to
the field in Madagascar, and a friend of the
cause has given $5000 for the enlargement of
the mission institute. Some of the Protestant
mission property seized by the Jesuits has been
restored to its owners.

—Turee things must be beaten, says a
Hindu proverb: a drum, an ass and a woman!
Contempt and abuse of woman are first fea-
tures of heathenism. Christianity teaches
quite otherwise.

—Tne great Bakundu tribe, in West Africa,
practises cannibalism. There exist cannibal
clubs among them which are composed of
‘society people’’ and insist upon good man-
ners. Once a year they have a ‘‘reception’’
and a banquet, at which they partake of a com-
posite stew of beef, dog and man. They claim
‘that this combination produces an exquisite
aroma. One of the rules of these fashionable

clubs is that the members are not buried but
eaten by their fellow-members.
‘heathenism !

_ —A Gunustian chapel has been discovered
ata place southwest of Kaironan in Africa.
It is preceded by a hall and ends in a semi-

Horrible

circular apse at the side of which are two sac-
risties containing 2 number of tombs. It is
surrounded by several halls on whose walls
were terra-cotta panels representing subjects
taken from the Old and New Testaments.

—AnoTHER discovery has been made near
Carthage, Africa. It consists of acryptreached
by a flight of steps and a corridor; the walls
of the corridor are covered with Christian
monograms and crosses. In the center is the
figure of a young and beardless man supposed
to represent Christ.

—Near the same place a baptistry with an
octagonal dome and a hall with mosaic pave-
ment has been found. On the latter are rep-
resented a series of crosses. Chalices with-
out handles, and colored red inside, possibly
to represent the blood of Christ, have been
discovered.

—Soutu America, says the Lutheran, comes
into prominence as an important mission field.
It is a continent of 7,000,000 square miles with
about 34,000,000 inhabitants, of which num-
ber 30,000,000 are strangers to the Gospel.
The country is twice as large as Europe, and
contains about one-eighth of the whole surface
of the earth. In Peru there is only one Prot-
estant pastor and a few agents of the Ameri-
can Bible Society. Bolivia, with its 2,300,000
inhabitants, has no evangelical missionary,
and receives only occasional visits from Bible
colporteurs. Chili has about twenty missiona-
ries with 1,500,000 people. Of the 14,000,000
people in Brazil only 2,000,000 have been
evangelized. The whole number of evangel-
ical missionaries in South America is 426.

—Tue ancient and State religion of the
Japanese is Shintoism; the popular religion
of the country is Buddhism. A man may be
both a Shintoist and a Buddhist at the same
time. Shintoism in 1887 had 192,359 temples,
and Buddhism 71,991.

—ARrcHDEACON Puarr, writing of work
amongst the Sioux Indians of Canada, says:
**T know of no better object lesson on the
value of missions than that to be learned by
a visit to these people. One is struck, first
of all, with the stalwart and manly forms of
these primitive people, so keen and sensitive
in their ways, yet so diflicult to arouse or ex-
cite. Sitting in the little hut beside a man of
four-score years, one can easily see what mis-
sions have accomplished. The sanguinary
warrior has exchanged his paint, and feathers,
and thirst for blood, for a European costume
and a large Bible in his own tongue. Listen
to his estimate of this newly-found treasure,
‘It gave me the light; it has true words, from
one side to the other. It has strength in it,
too, for what it says it is able to do. It has
changed men that nothing else could change ;
I like it for this.’”’

—‘‘I TELL you,”’ said a rabid Free-thinker,
‘the idea that there is a God never comes in
my head.’”’ ‘*Ah, precisely like my dog,’?
was the reply. ‘‘But there is this difference
—he does not go around howling about it.’?

OUR BOOK TABLE.

LEBENSBILD des weiland ehrwiirdigen Pastor Ernst
August Brauer, in kindlicher Dankbarkeit ge-
zeichnet von seinem Sohne Albert, Pastor in
Beecher, lll. Price, 75 cts. Concordia Publish-
ing House, St. Louis, Mo.

The mail that brought us this book brought us
also a letter from a member of one of the Eastern
Synods, in which the writer says: ‘‘The pioneer
work of your men in the West was ecasy work;
times were so different, and the people were dif-
ferent.”? Well, we opened this biography of one
of the pioneers of our church and read of his labors
in Addison, III., and saw nothing of that easy work.
The fact is, those pioneers were men of great self-
denial and prayer, and therefore men of power.
They were thoroughly loyal to the truth of God's
word and of our Confessions, and therefore God’s
blessing was with them in their hard labors. This
and many other lessons may be learned from the
interesting and highly instructive life story, so
charmingly told. The biographer has given us a
picture painted by the loving hand of a son, yet
bearing no evidence of exaggeration. The late Rev.
Brauer’s Christian character, his pulpit power, his
abundant humor, his great zeal for all the works
of the Church are set forth with great skill.

Acknowledgm ents.

Received of Rey. F. J. Lankenau, from the St. Paul
Colored Mission Church and School of New Orleans,
La., a contribution of $30.00 for our colored mis-
sions.

St. Louis, Mo., Dec. 23, 1897.

A. C. BurGporr, Treas.

Received of Rev. F. J. Lankenau, New Orleans,
La., from his St. Paul congregation $20.00, and of
Rev. J. Kossmann, New Orleans, La., from his
Mount Zion congregation $25.00.

St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 21, 1898.

A. C. Burcporr, Treas.

Received of Mrs. H. E. Monroe of Philadelphia
$15.00 for our mission at Meyersville.
May the Lord bless the kind donor.
W. P. Purser, Missionary.

Evangelical Lutheran Colored Churches,
NEw ORLEaNs, La.

EV. LUTH. ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL.
1625 Annette Str., between Claiborne and Derbigny.
Divine services: Sunday morning at 9% o'clock.
Sunday evening at 7)4 o’clock.
Wednesday evening at 734 o'clock.
10% o'clock.

Sunday School: Sunday morning at lock.
7% o'clock Tuesday

Adult catechumen class mects at
evening:
Singing School meets at 744 o’clock Monday cyening.

EV. LUTH. MT. ZION CHURCH.
Cor. Franklin and Thalia Stra.
Divine services: Sunday morning at 11 o’clock.
Sunday evening at pemrosclocks
Thursday evening at 7% o’clock.
Adult catechumen class mects at 734 o’clock Friday
evening.
Young Peoples’ Concordia Circle meets at 7 o'clock
evening. F. J. LANKENAU, Missionary.

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

Ey. Luth, Holy Trinity Church.

Springfield, Itt.
Divine Services at half past 10 o’clock Sunday morning
and at 8 o’clock Sunday evening.
Sunday School at3o'clock P.M. + =
Catechumen class meets Monday and Friday evenings.
Singing-school Tucsday evening.

TERMS:
Tue Lurneran Pionzer is published monthly,
payable in advance at the following rates, postage
included, to-wit:

50 wae. 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. a
Ail communications concerning the editorial de-
poement to be addressed to Prof. R. A. BiscHorr,
mcordia College, Fort Wayne, Ind.