The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1914, Page 63

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

kinds of distilled alcoholic liquors to the natives
has been prohibited, and the manufacture and sale
of spirits has also been forbidden in the Portuguese
district of Angola. In British West Africa local
distilling and the importation of distilling appa-
ratus have been prohibited, and the difficulty of
importing spirits into German, French, and British
West Africa has been much increased. In Southern
Nigeria it has been decided to substitute a silver
currency for the pernicious currency in gin.

LivinGsronr’s DresceNDANTS AS AFRICAN MIs-
SIONARTES. — It very fitting that two of
David Livingstone’s descendants should go to Af-
rica to take up work there as missionaries. ‘They
will locate near Lake Nyassa, a body of water which
Livingstone discovered in 1859. Dr. Hubert and
Miss Ruth Wilson — these are their names — have
received a thorough medical and nursing training,

*and they will labor under the auspices of the
United Free Church of Africa.

MapaGascar.— Of the seven Protestant mis-
sionary societies working on. the Island of Mada-
gascar, three are Lutheran societies. These three
occupy practically the whole southern half of the
island.

Gives ForruNe to Missions. — Announcement
has been made at Sterling, Ill., that Miss Nettie
Yoerb has given $10,000 to the Foreign Mission
Society of the Methodist Church. She earned the
money working as a seamstress.

CumnaMan Pays SyNov’s Dest. — The Synod
of the Five Provinces, which includes the Presby-
terian churches of Central China, met February 5
to 9 in the church of the Northern Presbyterian
mission in Soochow. ‘Though called the “Synod
ofthe Five Provinces,” only three were represented
at this meeting, and practically all the commis-
sioners came from the strong presbyteries in the
provinces of Chekiang and Kiangsu. Hunan was
not represented at all, for though the work in that
province is large, it is not organized. Another year
will probably bring a large delegation to the meet-
ing. ‘Two-thirds of the ‘commissioners were Chi-
nese. One of the special interests of the synod is
its home mission work. Besides several preaching-
,Places in the larger villages and in the country, it
“has under its care a home mission center in the

small walled city of Dzanghyin, in Chekiang proy-
ince. For some reason the gifts of the churches
had fallen off, and a debt of $200 was reported.
Many plans were offered to the liquidation of this
debt, when an elder from Shanghai; who is a prom-

seems

63

inent business man and most earnest Christian,
offered to pay off the debt and thus allow the synod
to plan for enlargement and actual work of the
future.
SUNDAY-SCHLOOLS AND Missions. — In the Sun-
day-schools ‘of the United States there are to-day
about 15,000,000 enrolled members. If these gave
an ayerage of a cent a week to missions, this would

make an income of $7,500,000 a year. If they
gave an average of five cents every week, the sum
would amount to $37,500,000 annually! Instead

of that many a child attending Sunday-school per-
haps does not contribute more than five or ten
cents during the whele year, while the same child
may spend that sum every week for candy, ice-
cream, or the picture show. If our Sunday-school
members would only to give to missions
according to ability, it would not be long before
the fathers at home would be giving the .price of
a cigar or two every week to missions, and the
mothers a nickel or a dime. The number of pupils
in the parochial and Sunday-schools of the Syn-
odical Conference is not far from 125,000; now
if all these boys and girls would begin to give sys-
tematically to missions, what a fine sum they would
contribute in a year! The giving of only one cent
a week would amount to over $60,000 in a year.

begin

Tue Cuurca Missionary Socrery.— For a
number of years this society has been having large
yearly deficits, which finally reached the huge’sum
of $350,000. At a special meeting held a few
months ago the magnificent sum of $500,000 was
received in the way of individual gifts. Having
paid its debt, the society purposes to use most of
the remaining. $150,000 in enlarging and strength-
ening its work in China.

Fifty Years of Colored Progress.

The Continent has the following to say on the
progress of the colored people during their fifty
years ‘of, freedom: “‘Never did another race show
such progress in fifty years as have the negroes
under American freedom. The very odds have been
made favorable. ... The economic gain cannot be
fully expressed in figures, though these are encour-
aging. ‘The negroes are going back to the farm. In
the South, while negro population has only increased
10 per cent., negro farms have increased 20 per cent.
Nearly a sito negroes own or rent farms for
themselves, one quarter of these being owners.

‘