The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1916, Page 46

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46

The Lutheran Pioneer.

divided on mission and anti-mission lines. The
anti-mission faction, numbering nineteen churches,
with seven hundred and forty-two communicants,
excluded six churches, with four hundred and forty-
one members, because they had the missionary
spirit. Fifty-two years later, in 1888, the nine-
teen anti-mission churches had dwindled down to
five, and the more than seven hundred members
had decreased to one hundred and fifty-one. On
the other hand, the six missionary churehes had
grown to be sixty-five and the membership had in-
creased to more than seven thousand.

In 1840, the Baptists of North Carolina sepa-
rated on mission and anti-mission lines, the mis-
sionary faction numbering about twenty-four thou-
sand members, and the anti-mission portion about
twelve thousand. In 1890, after a period of fifty
years, the pro-mission Baptists of the State had
increased to three hundred thousand, while the anti-
mission Baptists still numbered twelve thousand.

Facts speak louder than words. Surely, the
Bible speaks the truth when it says: “There is
that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth
to poverty.” The surest way to kill a Church or
‘congregation is to let it selfishly only think of its
own wants and needs. The Church must go and
grow, or else she will stay and starve; she must
extend or expire, preach or perish. The Spirit of
Christ is the spirit of missions, and the nearer we
get to Him, the more intensely missionary we must
become.

Why So Indifferent?

A well-known pastor was once traveling on
a train between two large cities. A prosperous-
looking gentleman occupied the same seat ‘with
him. During the conversation, which was soon
opened between the two, the pastor learned that
his traveling companion was an unbeliever, for he
spoke yery disparagingly of the Bible and of Chris-
tianity. finally, the conversation drifted on the
subject of books. ‘he man proved to be very well-
read, and so the pastor asked him whether he had
ever heard of that remarkable collection of books
written by kings and simple shepherds and fisher-
men during a period extending over more than a
thousand years, and which, despite the great variety
‘of writers, yet formed a harmonious whole. And
still other wonderful things the pastor said about
this reniarkable book. The gentleman listened with
interest and surprise. At last he cried: “Re-

markable! Strange that I have never heard of
it before! What is the name of the book?” Just ,

then they arrived at their destination, and as he
arose to leave his seat, the pastor answered, “Why,
the Bible, sir.”

I wonder whether the gentleman after this oc-
currence took up his Bible, if he had one, and
read it. I doubt it. People like that would not
believe, even though one came to them from the
dead. They criticize the Bible, though they have
never read it.

But how many Christians are also quite igno-
rant of the Bible! They speak of it as a ‘precious
treasure, but never use it. Christ says: “Search
the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal
life; and they are they which testify of Me.”

: “RP. J.

oo --

Items of General Missionary Interest.

Unoccuriep T'retps or Arrica.—In Africa
some 50,000,000 people are living in regions that
are wholly outside the reach of existing missions.
The unreached regions include the southern parts
of Morocco, Algeria; and Tripoli, practically all of
Sahara, Rio de Oro, with a population of more than
a hundred thousand, eight million in Senegambia
and the Niger District, almost two million in French
Guinea, one anda half million in Dahomey, a half
million on the Ivory Coast, and almost a million
in Portuguese Guinea, one and a half million in
Liberia, a half million in Togoland, about five mil-
lion in Northern Nigeria, three million in Kamerun,

- eight million in the French Congo, four million in

the Baghirmi and Wadai districts, two and a half
million in Portuguese East Africa, two million in
German East Africa, three million in British East
Africa, two million in Uganda, and not far from
a million in different divisions of Somaliland. —
North Africa is nominally an occupied mission-
field, and yet the missionaries have not been work-
ing here more than about thirty years. Work is
carried on in the Barbary States by a mere handful
of workers at a few isolated stations. ‘The station
farthest south is at Kairwan in Tunis. In this
city of almost 30,000 inhabitants, a center of Mo-
hammedan learning and propagandism, is situated
one married missionary and one single woman.
Kairwan is often called the Mecca of the Barbary
States. It has no Jess than thirty mosques and
many tombs of saints. Tlie dead are brought here
from a great distance to be buried in the holy

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