The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1920, Page 3

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The Lutheran Pioneer. 3

are the nail-prints in the palms of thy hands?”
Beelzebub — for it was he — fled in confusion, be-
ing unmasked as the great deceiver.

We put Satan to flight and overcome the world
by trusting in Him who with His pierced hands
breaks our fetters, delivers us from sin and its ser-
vitude, instils a new life in us by His Holy Spirit,
and safely leads us through all difficulties to the
Celestial City. Blessed are all that trust in Him!
— New Year, we heartily welcome thee. Whatever
thou mayest have in store for us, thou art a kind
friend and servant of such as are of God; for “all
things work together for good to them that love
God, to them who are the called according to His
purpose.” H. Osteruus.

———-_ -> es

Protestant Pioneers in India.

The first Protestant missionaries from Europe
to do effective work in India were two Lutherans,
Ziegenbalg and Pluetschau, sent out by Fred-
erick TV of Denmark. Though Denmark had held
possessions in India for eighty-five years, practically
nothing had been done for their heathen subjects
till the arrival of these two missionaries in 1706.
A little later a third man, Gruendler, came to assist
the other two men. While all three were able and
consecrated men, Ziegenbalg was by far the strong-
est of the three in most respects. A few years after
their arrival they already had five mission-schools
in successful operation, in which a large number
of “tender souls” were being instructed. In these
few years these missionaries had written or trans-
lated no less than thirty-two productions in the
Tamil language and ten in Portuguese, among
them being three dictionaries, three volumes of ser-
mons, two hymn-books, an arithmetic, a spelling-
book, and a grammar. Most of the books, however,
‘were of a religious character.

After being in India less than five years, Ziegen-
balg had translated the whole New Testament into
the Tamil language, and when he died in 1719, he
had translated the Old Testament as far as the
book of Ruth. The activity of Ziegenbalg and
Pluetschau was phenomenal. ‘They established
schools, assembled the natives for religious instruc-
tion two hours daily, held divine services regularly
for the Danish, German, and Portuguese residents,
prepared classes of natives for baptism, erected a
church for the native converts, held conferences
with Hindus and Mohammedans, and preached in

2.

a large number of villages. Three and a half years
after the landing of the first two missionaries, the
native congregation numbered no less than 160 per-
sons, who had all received a thorough course of in-
struction in the Christian religion before their
baptism and confirmation. The secret of the won-
derful activity of these Lutheran missionaries is
revealed in Ziegenbalg’s motto: “For this reason
we are made Christians, that we should be more
bent upon the life to come than upon the present.”
Concerning this motto Ziegenbalg himself writes:
“This is my daily memorandum, lest I should per-
haps forget, entirely to consecrate my life and
actions to an invisible eternity, minding little the

Bartholomew Ziegenbalg.

world either in its glories and smiles, or in its
frowns and afflictions.”

The early Lutheran missionaries found worthy
successors in men like Schultze, Kiernander, the
celebrated founder of the Calcutta mission, Gericke,
the tireless village preacher, and the noted linguist
Fabricius. However, the prince of all the later Lu-
theran workers was Christian Friedrich Schwartz.
He came to India in 1750, and such were. his abili-
ties that a few months after his arrival he was
already. as busily engaged in missionary work as
though he had been doing it for years. This is
what he tells himself of how he began his work:
“Soon after the commencement of the new year
I began a catechetical hour in the Tamil or Malabar
school, with the youngest lambs, and thus I learned
to stammer with them. At the same time I made
almost daily excursions and spoke with Christians

“