The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1917, Page 20

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20

LUTHERAN MiIsSIONS AMONG THE DEFECTIVES.

For almost twenty years the Lutheran Synod
of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States has carried on
a successful work among the deaf-mutes of our
country. At present 9 missionaries are engaged
in the blessed work of bringing the Gospel of Jesus
to those that are not able to hear the spoken Word.
All told, it is probable that about 7,500 deaf are
reached by these missionaries at 44 preaching-
stations. At North Detroit, Mich., is situated an
institute for deaf-mutes, with a staff of 4 teachers,
which is supported by members of the Missouri

Synod.

Lurueran Home Missions.

As the pioneer marched westward from the
shores of the Atlantic, the missionary followed
him. And as the number of settlers in the more
Western States increased, the work of the home
missionaries grew greater. Ever since the middle
of the eighteenth century has the Lutheran Church
been busy at following the new settlers to their
backwoods homes, and gathering them into con-
gregations. Particularly since the middle of the
last century did our Church have to strain every
muscle to keep step with the mighty onrush of
Lutheran immigrants from Europe, and to prevent
them from being gathered into strange folds. On
they came from Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Nor-
way, France, Austria, and Russia, speaking Ger-
man, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, French, Bohe-
mian, Finnish, Polish, Lettish, Slavonian, and
Hungarian. To take care of these millions, our
Church established Immigrant Missions at all the
principal seaports along the Atlantic Coast. And
to gather them into congregations at their final
destinations, all the synods have special boards and

hundreds of missionaries at work. How many
laborers are working in this extensive field is hard

to ascertain with exactness, but based on the fact
that the United Norwegian ,Synod, one of the
- smaller bodies, has 128 men in the field, and that
over 400, pastors of the Missouri Synod are en-
gaged in ‘this work, we go safe in saying that more
‘than a thousand missionaries are at work in this
home field.

In this connection Jet us mention, in passing,
the work which our Church is doing among the
Jews and i among the sailors in several of our Eastern
“cities, Missions among the Jtalians and Persians
are also carried on. ine
_ We must likewise not lose sight of the fact
that our Church is reaping an peened large

The Lutheran Pioneer.

harvest every year by its English Home Mission.
This English work is destined, as a matter of
course, to become the most important work of our
Church. It is not only to the people of foreign
tongues that we as a Church are called to bring |
the Gospel, to the Lutheran immigrant in the West
and Northwest, but also to the English-speaking
natives, to such of them as are still out of the
pale of the visible Church, whether they be in New
England, in Georgia, or in California. In our large {
cities, particularly, there is an increasingly great }
opportunity for us to proclaim God’s Word and |
Luther’s doctrine pure in the English tongue. And
we are pleased to state that our dear Church is |
more and more awaking to the fact that it is her \
duty to bring the Gospel not only to her own chil- |
dren, but to those that are outside her bounds.
Every year the Lutheran Church is spending thou-
sands of dollars in prosecuting her English Home
Mission work.

In many of the larger cities our Church is work-
ing in the “slums” and by-ways, rescuing many a
poor sinner from degradation and wretchedness. In
these same larger cities, too, our Church has pas- |
tors who devote their whole time to the inmates of
the public charitable and corrective institutions,
such as hospitals, infirmaries, jails, work-houses, {
and the like.

Finally, the Lutheran Church of our country is
doing an important mission-work in its orphanages,
hospitals, sanitariums, hospices and similar institu-
tions. The writer has no exact statistics at hand
as to the number of these institutions of mercy,
but he ventures to say that there cannot be less _
than 150. F. J. L.

American Lutheran Foreign Missions.

The General Synod is doing successful mis-
sionary work among the Telugus of Southern India
and the natives of Liberia in Africa. The work is
done by a staff of 58 missionaries at an annual
expense of almost'$120,000. — The General Council

has 89 missionaries working among the Telugus of

India and the natives of Japan. The annual cost
of this work is about $110,000. The Augustana
Synod, a synod in affiliation with the General Coun-
cil, is supporting a mission of its own in China,
where it has 32 missionaries in the field. The yearly
income for this work aggregates $40,000. — Of all
Lutheran church-bodies, the Norwegian Lutherans
betoken the greatest interest in Fortign Missions.