The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1914, Page 26

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O how sweet, how refreshing is this truth! O
the joy that enters our hearts at the sight of the
Savior’s empty tomb! Jesus is risen, Hallelujah!

“Jesus is risen,” the angels told the holy women,
and thereby brought joy to their sad hearts. “Jesus
is risen,” the women said to the other disciples,
and dispelled the gloom that filled their souls.
“Jesus is risen,” these tidings have often cheered
our desponding minds. “Jesus is risen,” let this
be the glad news which our lips shall publish to
our fellow-men far and near.

Our Colored Mission Schools.

In his address delivered at the convention of
the Student Volunteer Movement at Kansas City,
Mo., on January 2, 1914, Dr. John Warneck, a
leading German authority on foreign missions,
called attention to several distinctive characteristics
of Lutheran mission work. One of the special fea-
tures of the mission work of the Lutheran Church
he referred to is the attention paid to the elementary
schooling of the children. On this point he said:
‘While we Lutherans recognize the value of the
higher schools, we pay especial attention to elemen-
tary schools in our missions, for we believe that a
higher system of education is impracticable without
the broad basis of a comprehensive elementary sys-
tem. In our elementary schools we make the Word
of God the center of our teaching, based on a large
use of our Bible stories and of the Smaller Cate-
chism. We do not content ourselves with the or-
ganization of Bible classes, but constitute religion
a leading subject in the whole course of instruction.
Nor do we spare the pupils in the matter of memo-
rizing God’s Word, being convinced that in later
years they will be thankful for every text and hymn
and Bible story learned in the days of childhood.”

_ What Dr. Warneck here says concerning the for-
eign missionary policy of our Church is also true
of our Colored Missions in this country. While
other denominations spend thousands and thousands
of dollars on higher schools for colored people, and
often not one cent on elementary schools, our mis-
sion workers hold fast to the opinion that mission
schools with their daily religious instruction are a
great and most successful mission agency. Our
mission schools have always been an important fac-
tor-in our work, and the influence exerted through
them has been remarkable. The seed of God’s Word

_ sown in our elementary schools has borne most

26 The Lutheran Pioneer.

wonderfully rich harvests in many instances. In
these schools the boys and girls receive a thorough
training in the truths of the Bible, a thing needed
for their own persons and in building up truly -
Christian communities. Sunday-schools and so-
called Bible classes cannot suffice; a daily indoc-
trination extending over the whole course of ele-
mentary training alone is, and can be, satisfactory.
But while thus emphasizing religious instruc-
tion, our colored mission schools by no means neg-
lect the secular instruction of the child. The writer
speaks from experience when he says that the pupils
of our mission schools have at all times been able
to successfully compete in secular knowledge with
the pupils of the public schools. In New Orleans,
where there are many public schools, some in close
proximity to our schools, the latter are always filled
to their utmost capacity. Parents acquainted with
the working of our schools are willing to pay the
tuition we ask, and send their children considerable
distances to our institutions, because they know
from experience that their boys and girls enjoy
religious and secular advantages there which they
could not enjoy in the public schools. ‘The writer
knows of children in New Orleans that have come
as far as thirty and more city blocks, passing public
schools on the way, to attend our schools. Before
we had our own higher school — Luther College —
in New Orleans, the graduates of our elementary
schools had no trouble in entering the proper grade
of the state high school, and in some instances they

were successful in entering even higher classes. In

practically every instance the broad and solid basis
of secular training that had been laid in our mis-
sion schools enabled them to hold a front rank in
the higher school.

Wong Fong.

In 1908, Rev. J. F. G. Harders opened a Lu-
theran mission school in Globe, Ariz., for Chinese
boys. Among its first pupils was Wong Jong.
Though seventeen years old at the time of his en-
trance, he was still very much of a child, in many
ways. He became very much attached to the mis-
sionary’s family and spent many an hour in
Rev. Harders’ house. “Me much too young to have
no father and mother; me call you papa — and
mamma mamma, please, please!” he said to the

- missionary. His disposition was so sunny that ©

everybody liked him. Even the reticent Indian
boys about the mission station would greet him