The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1914, Page 47

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

The Luthe

A Wonp or Kinp Apprecration. — The follow-

ing editorial appeared in a recent issue of the .

Tntheran Church Visitor: —

“Our Missouri brethren are doing a most com-
mendable work among the negroes in the South.
Many of our people, who have wished for the United
Synod to take up this work, do not know what
Lutherans are doing through negro missions. The
Missouri Synod is the most active, though the Joint
Synod of Ohio is doing some work in that field, too.
Tue Lurneran Pioneer, a missionary monthly of
the Synodical Conference, in the April issue gives
the full list of stations for work among the negroes.
About twenty-six of the forty-two stations are in
North Carolina. Many of these stations have paro-

~chial schools as the chief medium for work, and the
work done is characteristically thorough. We ought
to rejoice in this service. ‘There are special cireum-
stances preventing the United Synod from engaging
in this work extensively now, but indifference is not
one of them. Our brethren from other sections of
the country can come in and do the work success-
fully if they are discreet, and they deserve more
than our good wishes. There are many ways by
which we can help them, and we ought to do it.
Perhaps some of our pastors in North Carolina who
know about this work in a first-hand way will be
glad to tell the United Synod people about it.”

We should be pleased to have the pastors of the
United Synod give their opinion on our work among
the Freedmen.

Items of General Missionary Interest.

Hanxow, Cuina.— Missionary Arndt reports
that he has opened two new chapels in Hankow.
The Hai Sho Li Chapel was opened in February.
Tn his first service in this chapel he had 100 hearers.
Subsequent services have been equally well attended.
The Hwa Pu Kai Chapel was thrown open in March.
The services at this place have been attended by
as high as 150 persons, though it has a seating
capacity of only 90. Rev. Arndt writes that though
Christian missionaries have been working in Han-
kow for fifty-three years, the number of Christians
is still comparatively small, and that there is room
for many more workers in this city, not to mention
China as a whole. 3

_ Manacascar. — The Norwegian missions in
Madagascar now number more than 70,000 mem-
‘bers in 806 congregations. Over 2,000 natives,

‘an Pioneer.

47

among them 85 ordained preachers, are assisting
in the work. The French government has in past
years hindered the work greatly, but despite all
hindrances the work is progressing. ‘There are few
mission fields that have experienced as much per-

secution as has the field in Madagascar. And yet
Christianity has grown notwithstanding. In 1835,

the Christian missionaries were driven from Mada-
gascar, and their converts were left to meet a fierce
and relentless persecution. A noble young woman,
Rasalama, was the first martyr, a spear being thrust
through her as she prayed. By scores, in many
cruel ways, the Christians were slain. They were
burned to death, stoned, killed by boiling water, and
murdered by horrible tangena poison. Some were
lowered over the “Rock of Hurling,” a precipice of
150 feet in Antananarivo. “Will you give up pray-
ing?” each was asked; and when he answered, “No,”
the rope was cut and the faithful witness was dashed
to pieces far below. One was heard singing as he
fell. This continued for a quarter of a century;
but a king came to the throne who proclaimed entire
religious liberty, and when the missionaries has-
tened back, they found on the island four times as
many Christians as they had left.

AMERICAN MISSIONARIES IN Mexico. — The
Methodist Episcopal Church supports 30 American
missionaries in the Mexican republic, 18 under
the General Board and 12 under the Woman’s
Foreign Missionary Society. The total valuation
of Methodist property in Mexico is valued at
about $1,000,000. The membership is 21,000. The
Methodist Church, South, has 39 American mis-
sionaries at work in various cities and towns of
Northern and Central Mexico. The Presbyterian
Board of Foreign Missions is supporting 18 mis-
sionaries in Mexico. . The Protestant Episcopal
Board of Missions supports a group of 27 mission-
aries in the Mexican republic. The Baptist Home
Mission Society has two workers in Mexico, one in
Mexico City, and one in Pueblo. The American
Board (Congregationalist) has a force of 12 Amer-
ican workers in various cities of Guadalajara, Chi-
huahua, and Parral.

A Great CHURCH IN Hononunv. — Ninety :
years ago the first American missionaries went to
Hawaii, then the home of a degraded and brutal
paganism. ‘To-day Central Union Church in Hono-
lulu has a membership of more than eleven hundred,
and is supporting five foreign missionaries, two in
Peking, China, and three on the islands of the
Pacific. :

~