The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1908, Page 63

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: The Lutheran Pioneer.

NOTES.

He Is Our Neicuzor. — A Southern writer in
one of our exchanges says: The white intelligent
Christian people of the South cannot and dare not
look with indifference on the colored man in his
illiterate and immoral condition. Je ts our neigh-
bor, and we owe him not only our sympathy, but
our encouragement and assistance. ‘There is no
doubt that the Church can and must give the best
and safest training to the negro. What excuse have
we to render that we have been and still are so
slow to enter the great and effectual door open and
inviting? I believe the only educational and mis-
sionary work [by Lutherans] among the
negroes of the South is what is done by the
Missouri Synod [Synodical Conference]. These
brethren deserve great credit for what they have
undertaken and accomplished during the past
quarter century.

done

Mission Scuoot 1x Porto Rico.— The mis-
sionary of the General Council in Porto Rico re-
ports that the Lutheran parochial school has proved
a great blessing in the mission work. He writes:
“¥special attention has been given to Christian in-
struction, teaching thé children the Catechism,
Bible History, morning and evening prayers, grace
before and after meals in Spanish and English. It
has been.a touching scene to see the children bow
their heads and say their prayers. They have taken
special: delight in the Bible stories, and it has given
us great pleasure to hear the children recite these
stories in their own characteristic way. Without
doubt the children have spent their happiest hours
in our Christian school, where they have been
brought in touch with Christian love and sympathy.
The Blessed Friend of children, the Good Shepherd,
has been continually placed before their young
minds, and thus the Gospel seed has been sown in
their hearts. ‘The influence of the school has also
been felt in the homes. Upon visiting the homes
of the parents, one may hear the parents relate the
Bible stories and Bible truths that the children
have learned, and the brothers and sisters at home
love to recite the Bible verses and sing the Chris-
tian songs they have learned from those attending
the school. Thus we sce that our school work is
not in yain.”

Missions in THE Pairrines.—A mission-
ary in the Philippines writes that “the Gospel is
making splendid progress in the islands. The Bible

63

Societies find increasingly large demands and ap-
preciation for the Book of books. If the work ex-
pands for fifty years as it has during the last seven,
the islands will be predominantly - evangelical.”

A CHance.— When the United States bought
Alaska from Russia, in 1867, the natives around
Point Barrow were so wild and lawless that ship-
wrecked sailors trusted the mercy of the frozen sea
rather than fall into the hands of these natives.
But in about twenty-five years, through the labors
of missionary teachers, such a change was brought
about that when eight whaling ships were wrecked
off the coast in the nineties of the past century, the
rescue of 400 American seamen was made possible
by a generous sacrifice on the part of these natives,
who gave up their only reindeer herd to help the
poor seamen.

Mission Scuoors.— The latest reports show
that more than a million pupils are yearly. enrolled
in Protestant mission schools in foreign lands, and
that the number of American schools is almost as
great as that of all the rest of the world combined.

EpucationaL Work IN JAPAN. — The impor-
tance of the educational work done in Japan by
missionaries from the United States is shown in
a statement made by Dr. Griffis, an authority on
things Japanese. He says: “Nine-tenths of the
modern educated men and women of Japan before
1890, and a majority of those in influence and office
to-day, received their first instruction from Ameri-
can missionaries.”

An Invatip’s Work ror Missions. — Miss
Lizzie Johnson, a “shut-in,” who lives in Casey, IIl.,
is reported to have earned over $11,000 for. missions
by the sale of bookmarks which she has made.

THE BIBLE IN THE Kongo. — Twenty-five years
ago, no Kongo language had been reduced to
writing. Now parts of the Bible have been trans-
lated into seven of these African languages.

Nor a Lire or Ease. — One who has traveled
much in the heathen countries of the East says of
the life of the missionaries in those distant lands:
“Theirs is not a life of ease; it is not a life of
comfort and luxury. I don’t know whether you
have experienced that sense of distance from home,
that being surrounded -by an alien people, that im-
pression that if you could only get into a streetcar.