The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1913, Page 86

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86 The Lutheran Pioneer.
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there are 28. We then had no readers of the Lu-
theran Witness; to-day we have 3 subscribers. ‘This
makes a total of 140 papers distributed in our con-
gregation. Of course, this could be still better, but
if every congregation in our Synod would adopt
this plan, I believe that Concordia Publishing House
would have to double its capacity.

“People will pay 10 cents every week for their
daily home paper in order to keep posted on city
affairs, and that means $5.20 per year. Surely, each
family should then be able to keep a church-paper,
in order to keep posted on what is going on in their
Church. And if this would be done, the collections
would be better, the church attendance would be
better, and the minister would have more help in
his work.”

Isn’t this layman right? Of course, he is.

—_—_—_—————- 2

Items of General Missionary Interest.

A Mission amMonG THE San Bras Inp1ans. —
Miss Annie Coope, an American missionary, has
succeeded in getting a foothold among the wild
San Blas Indians in Central America. She is the
first white person that has ever been permitted to
remain among them over night. When she first
tried to start a mission among them three years
ago, she was not admitted. But last February she
gained an entrance to the village of Nirgana. She
has been furnished a grass house by the native
chief for a dwelling. She keeps school ten hours
a day, and reports that her children are making
rapid progress. On Sunday she teaches Sunday-
school in the morning and afternoon. ‘Two chiefs
from other villages have visited her school and say
they want a teacher. The people of Nirgana vil-
lage, which is about one hundred miles from Colon,
have become so attached to Miss Coope that they
will not let her leave. “No,” they tell her, “you
must die with us.”

HUNGER FoR THE WorpD IN Inp1A. — Eagerness
to come together for Christian preaching has never
been better illustrated than by the present-day mis-
sions in certain parts of India. One worker re-
ports: “In various parts of the country great gath-
erings have been swayed by the Spirit of God. In
one case 10,000 were gathered in a village of forty
houses.” '

Meprcat, Missions. — Medical missions are a

great power to draw the heathen to the preaching
of God’s Word, though it goes without saying that

many a medical missionary has the same experience
in these days that Livingstone had in Africa. ‘To
him a native patient one day made the remark:
“We like you very much; you are the only white
man we ever got acquainted with. We like you be-
cause you aid us while we are sick, but we don’t
like your everlasting preaching and praying. We
can’t get accustomed to that!” But though this be
the case, we should be closing our eyes to facts,
were we to deny the great value of medical missions
in foreign fields to illustrate the Gospel, open hearts
to receive it, and to prove that the loving Father
sent it.— Dr. Harriet G. Parker is probably the
best known lady physician in India. In her hospital
at Madura she last year treated no less.than eighteen
thousand patients. In addition to the hospital work
proper and the clinie of often more than one hun-
dred patients a day, she has constant calls to out-
side practice. Some time ago she went with one
of the missionaries on a ten days’ tour among the
villages. One day she treated two hundred and
eighty patients, and on another, three hundred and
thirty-five, making an average of about two hundred
for each day during the tour. Who will deny that
many an opportunity was here afforded to help the
souls as well as the bodies?

Dan Crawrorp, Missionary. — After twenty-
two years’ work as missionary in Africa, Dan Craw-
ford is visiting Europe and America. He has writ-
ten a most surprising book, Thinking Black, which
is sure to increase interest in African missions. He
expects to return to the long grass region of Central
Africa next February.

ONE Minuion Yor a UNIVERSITY IN JAPAN. —
John D. Rockefeller has donated one million dol-
lars to found a university in Japan, under the con-
dition that Dr. John Mott take in hand the reali-
zation of the plan.

Tue Korean Tria ror Treason. — The Su-
preme Court at Seoul has set aside the decision of
the Court of Appeals in the case of the Korcan
Christians accused of treason, and ordered a reopen-
ing of the case. There now is hope that these six
Christians, who had been sentenced to imprisonment
of five and six years, may also be acquitted as were
the other ninety-nine accused.

Mucu Is Yer to se Done iw InpIA.— We
often think that India is getting to be quite a Chris-
tian country. This is, however, a great mistake.
Of every 1,000 natives of India, 709 are heathen
Hindus, 212 are Mohammedans, 32 are Buddhists,
and only 10 are Christians.