The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1916, Page 47

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

47

ground of this sacred city. From Kairwan one
sould travel in a southeasterly direction for more
than two thousand miles before reaching another
mission-station in that direction. Surely, Africa is
yet far from being occupied with a sufficient num-
ber of mission-stations. ‘he Dark Continent is still
awaiting the light of the Gospel.

ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION AND MISSIONS. —
The following appropriations were paid by the
trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation in 1915:
American Baptist Home Mission Society, $100,000 ;
American Baptist Foreign Society,
$250,000; Baptist Missionary Convention, $15,000 ;
Tayimen’s Missionary Movement, $8450; New York
Baptist Mission Society, $2,985.60; New York City
Baptist Mission Society, $7,000; State Mission
Board of the Pennsylvania Baptist General Con-
vention, $800.

Missionary

Porrions or Asta.—In Arabia
three provinces having a population of perhaps three
million have no missionary within their borders.

UnoccuPied

East of the Jordan in Syria are sections of country
with an aggregate population of over a half million
where no missionary works. In the Sinaitie Penin-
sula there is no missionary and no mission-station.
In the Malay Peninsula there are three districts
with a population of more than a million in which
no mission-work is being done.

INpIANS IN Centran Amentca.,— The entire
population of the five republics of Central America
is estimated at over four million, of whom almost
one half are said to be Indians. ‘The Roman Catho-
lie Chureh claims three-fourths of these as Chris-
tianized, but in the opinion of missionaries who
have been among them this is an overestimate.
There are whole tribes that have never been visited
by the bishops of the different republics, and among
whom there are no resident priests. At a very low

and conservative estimate there must be at least

a half million Indians in Central America who are
sunk in heathen darkness. The Central American
Mission has now in Central America 28 foreign
missionaries, while the Moravians are working here
with 32: foreign missionaries. ‘Che Central Ameri-
can Mission proposes to place twenty more mis-
. sionaries into the field, if this additional number
of workers can be found.

Inpra. — The increase of population in India
during the last ten years was seven per cent., but
the Christians of India have increased during this

same period at the rate of fifty per cent. This
surely proves that the work of Christian missions
in India is not in vain.

Tue Parts EvaNGELicaL Mission. — This so-
ciety, in spite of the most strenuous efforts to raise
the needed income, and of generous self-sacrifice on
the part of the mission staff at home and abroad,
in which the native Christians also took part, is
facing a large deficit. The salaries of the mis-
sionarics have been reduced twenty per cent. Some
of the native helpers have insisted upon their sala-
ries being reduced as much as fifty and seventy-five
Out of these diminished salaries many
have made further offerings, some voluntarily re-
nouncing a quarter’s salary or more. The working
staff in the field has been reduced by sixty persons.

per cent.

Ture NeurraL Countries or Europe anp Mu1s-
sions. — In Jfolland, notwithstanding difficulties in
trade and the mobilization of the army, missionary
work has shown remarkable vitality. The financial
condition of all the Dutch societies is good, and
most of the missionaries prepared for 1915 were
sent out. In Switzerland the contributions to the
Basel Missionary Society have shown no decrease,
and the Mission Romande was able to close its ac-
counts without a deficit at the end of the year.
In Denmark all the missionary societies have closed
the year without a deficit, and, in addition to re-
turning missionaries, sixteen new workers, of whom
three were doctors, were sent out. In Norway mis-
sionary work went forward with fair regularity,
and in Sweden the total income for the year was
100,000 kronor in advance of that of the previous
year. Out of twelve missionary societies, only two
reported a small decrease of income, all the others
showing a fing increase. Sweden sent out sixty mis-
sionaries last fall into the foreign field. °

F. J. li.

Hungry Sheep Not Fed.

A United States Senator met three clerzymen
in three different parts of the country, and each
complained that he could not get a large audience.
The Senator asked the first man if he believed that
the Bible was the Word of God. ‘The cleric, smil-
ing pityingly, said that of course he did not in the
crude and ordinary sense, and then he launched
into a mass of vague metaphysical phrases. The

Senator asked the second man if he believed in the
future life, and the reverend gentleman said that

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