The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1920, Sheet 29

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

24

A Pariah Village Lying in a Rice Field.

if our love were useless, because it is not appreciated.
‘rue love recompenses good for evil, blessing for
cursing, is not easily provoked, endures all things.

How highly he praises this virtue by his remark-
able statement: He thal abideth in love, abideth in
God and God in him! Let us, then, eagerly and
constantly practise true love and show this by gen-
uine zeal for the good and great work of missions.

H. Osrernus.

The Mass Movement in India.

About’ sixty million men, women, and children
are involved in the Indian mass movement. Mis-
sions of all denominations are compelled to turn
away thousands seeking Baptism, since they have
no opportunity to teach them. ‘The United Pres-
byterians, it is claimed, have at least 150,000 per-
sons that are waiting to.be instructed and received
into their Indian churches. ‘The Methodists bap-
tized over 30,000 within a period of twelve months
and refused Baptism to 152,000 during the same
period, whom,they were not able to instruct. While
our missionaries in India are not dealing with such
great numbers, they also have been obliged to turn
away prospective candidates for Baptism, and in
some instances they have been compelled to decline
to instruct whole villages that appealed to them,
because they found it physically impossible to take
over more work than they were doing. ‘The con-
ditions of the World War have greatly depleted the
ranks of our missionaries in India, and it is prob-
able that the number of European and American
missionaries in India will remain small for years to

come, unless the British Government
decides to be more liberal in its
terms of admittance.

Think of whole villages vainly
applying for instruction and ad-
mittanee! “Will you not come and
baptize us before we die?” is the ery
of thousands. One denomination re-
ports that there are 160,000 children
under its care which it cannot ade-
quately take care of because the la-
borers are lacking. The Indian field
is truly ripe for the harvest, but, alas!
as in the days of Jesus, the number
of laborers is so very, very small.

Several years ago a group of
people in Bengal applied to a mis-
sion for Baptism. Because of the lack of means to
instruct them, the request had to be denied. Tater
this same group of people was induced to become
Mohammedans and carried a much larger number
of their caste with them. ;