The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1904, Page 39

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

NOTES AND ITEMS.

Harp Tives. —The church treasury was empty,
and ‘‘hard times’? was the general complaint.
“‘Then,’? said a faithful church member, ‘‘I must
double my contributions; there are so many who
cannot give at all.’? And he did it.

CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN. — A traveler in the East
writes: ‘‘During the last fourteen years, Christian-
ity has made great strides in Japan. There are now
about 120,000 enrolled Christians in that country,
and they exercise a great influence. In the House
of Commons, the President, or Premier, is a Chris-
tian, also one of the Cabinet Ministers. Three per
cent. of the army officers are Christians, and the
commanders of several warships. Three of the
great Tokio dailies are largely in Christian hands,
and several others have Christian editors. About
3000 Japanese leave the Christian schools every
year, after an average course of four years. Their
influence is increasingly felt.
Supreme Court are also Christians. Yet not so
long since the Christian missionary pursued his
work in Japan at the peril of his life.’’

Brsie Work. — The British Bible Society, which
recently celebrated its one-hundredth anniversary,
has resolved to raise a special fund for the prepara-
tion of new versions of the Bible. The translation
work of the Society, though comparatively little
known, is, indeed, one of its glories, and during
the hundred years of its existence it has published
Scripture translations or revisions in more than
three hundred and fifty foreign languages, a work
which has been of great help to the missionaries.
Revision is often necessary, owing to the difficulty
of finding at first the different shades of meaning.
An earnest missionary was horrified to find that,
owing to his catechist’s suggestion, the beautiful
words, ‘‘A crown of glory that fadeth not away,”’
had been rendered, ‘‘A hat that never wears out.”

Korra.—A few years ago a New York business
man, learning that Korea was open to mission work,
drew his check for six thousand dollars, to enable
the Presbyterian Board to begin work in that heathen
land. There are now over 20,000 Christian converts
there, over 800 churches organized, 21 chapels built
in a single year by the native Christians themselves.

Founp Our.—We recently read that Mormon
missionaries in the mountain districts of the South
try to make converts by boasting of miracles per-

Two judges of the ©

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39

formed by Joseph Smith, the founder of their per-
nicious sect. Well, in a Chicago paper Charles H.
Cartwell lately told how Joseph Smith was ‘‘found
out’’ when trying to perform one of his tricks which
he called miracles. Mr. Cartwell says: ‘‘Some time
in the thirties Smith and a party of his followers
were proselyting in Muskingum County, Ohio. He
appointed a certain day when he would show the
people his wonderful powers, and that he was a
second Christ, by walking on the waters of Mud
Creek. The water was always muddy. A day or
two before the time set grandmother’s brother Rob-
ert and a couple of neighbor boys were accidentally
attracted to the Mormons working at the creek, and,
conceiling themselves, watched the Mormons put
down stakes and put planks on them from bank to
bank, the plank resting about six inches under
water. After the Mormons left the boys went down
and took out the center plank, where the water was
about ten feet deep. The next day ‘Balaam’ Smith
came down to the creek, and, after a long exhorta-
tion, started across the creek. He was all right and
on top till he came to the center, where his ‘powers’
seemed to leave him, and he, like McGinty, went
to,the bottom. This was the end of Mormonism in
that county.’’

A FRIEND oF Missrons.— Recently a Christian
farmer, who supports a missionary substitute in
China, found that with care he could invest $1000
more in missions this year. On inquiring where it
could be placed so as ‘‘to give the Gospel to those
who otherwise would have no opportunity of hear-
ing it,’? he was given full particulars as to an op-
portunity for opening up a district where are a mil-
lion people who have not yet heard of the Saviour.
He then turned over not only the $1000 with the
assurance that it would be paid annually for life,
but also a second $1000 for this year towards send-
ing missionaries to the new field,

CRUELTY OF THE HEATHEN. — The plague was
raging in Puna, India. In one Brahman family
six people were sick. After the father’s death came
four Brahman priests, great, strong men, to perform
the last funeral rites. To this belonged also that
the head of the dead man’s widow should be shaved
smooth. Although she was sick with the plague,
the priests laid hold on the fevered woman, took all
her jewels, and broke her arm rings; and though
she could not sit upright, they held her fast till her
head was shaved, all the while, according to Hindoo
custom, calling her vile names. Before they had
done, she passed away.