The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1920, Sheet 48

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The Luutheran Pioneer.

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and. thankfully they hold his hands to receive the
message from God’s Word! A day of joy for them!
With happy hearts they bid their pastor good-bye
and urgently request him to come again the next
month. Yes, that day always is a day of joy also
for the missionary!

What a blessed work our Synod is doing for
the Lord among the deaf and the deaf-blind! ‘Thus
there are still being fulfilled the words of Is. 29, 18:
“And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of

_ the book, and the. eyes of the blind shall see out
of obscurity, and out of darkness.” May God fill
us all with more and more zeal in this work, so
that the Jast.day, when our Lord Jesus shall appear
in glory, will be a-day of great joy to many more
deaf and deaf-blind, and they shall behold Him with
their eyes and hear Him with their ears in whom
they have believed through His Word preached in
the sign-language! May He grant it for Jesus’
sake ! — The Deaf Lutheran.

Items of Missionary Interest.

MoHAMMEDANISM IN AFRICA.— Mohammedan-
ism is increasing in Africa at a more rapid rate
than Christianity. Humanly speaking, the next ten
‘years will decide whether Africa will be Christian-

"ized or -whether it will beconie the stronghold of
Islam. ‘The decay of Islam’s political power has
not destroyed the aggressiveness of the Moham-
medan religion. The Methodists, according to their
recently outlined plans, intend to undertake. the

building of great industrial schools and increase
their medical and evangelistic forces to combat the
spreading influence of Islam.

Anapra. — Though by far the greatest number
ot the Arabs still turn to- Mecca when they pray,
_ the World War has done much to bring them in

contact with Christianity. Christian schools at

Bahrein and Muscat are flourishing, and four

strategic centers are now open for Christian schools

_ at Kuttar, the coast of Oman, Riadh, and Hussa.

Tur GosPEL In Arrica. — Sixty million ‘souls
in Northern Africa have never had the opportunity
to hear of Christianity. Central Africa has less

than one-quarter of its people reached by Christian
missions, and South Africa is also inadequately pro-
ded with missions.

_ Muproan Misstons rv ArricA. — Medical mis-

_ Sionaries are doing much ‘to break down the super-

ms of Africa, but as yet there are only ten

per cent. of the natives within possible reach of the
mission stations. In the Nile valley alone there

are only five hospitals, twenty-seven dispensaries,

and six medical missionaries working among eighty

million people. What is that among so many?
Nortnern PresByrertAn Missron Program.

— More than 300 missionaries, at a very conserva-

- tive estimate, are needed in the twenty-seven foreign

fields in which mission work is carried on by the
Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian
Church in the U.S.A. China alone is to get fifty-
seven new workers, though it is calling for twice
that number. China, whose population numbers
one-quarter of the globe, gets the most recruits, and
India comes next. Last year the Presbyterians sent
out 116 new missionaries. At present there are
sixty-six approved applicants for the foreign field,
while applications of seventy-nine candidates are
under consideration.

Misston Program or tire SouruEerN Prespy-
TERTANS. — he Southern Presbyterian Church.
with a membership of 368,000, is responsible for
the Christian teaching of 32,000,000 persons in
foreign lands. ‘This means that every Presbyterian
‘communicant in fifteen Southern States has taken
upon himself indirectly the carrying of the Gospel
of Christ to eighty-seven men, women, and children.
The Southern Presbyterian Chureh will spend
$1,322,000 for foreign missions this year as a result
of its new program. But missions at home are not
to be neglected, liowever pressing the foreign need.
For home missions they have appropriated $640,000.

CuinesE TrsxratonrEs. — Mr. Chang Po Ling
is the head of Nankai College, Tientsin, China.
Some time, ago he said, “Christianity alone can help
China through the turmoil of change without
danger to herself or to, the rest of the world.”
This is what Mr. Sung, adviser in the Department
of Finance, says ‘of Christianity: “One of the
greatest contributions of the missionaries to the
Chinese people has been the ideal Christian home
life. I believe that the Christian home can be
established quite as well in China as in America. '
Tn fact, this has already been proved by thousands
of families. Mission schools have been an inesti-
mable blessing to China. Christianity is the only
hope for China, — the only means of making the
nation strong morally, intellectually, and physi-
cally.”” .

Pagan Cruriries. — In China the father may
add to his income by selling his daughter into
slavery. — Infant deaths are so much a matter of

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