The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1920, Sheet 57

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

The Lutheran Pioneer.

5b

Do Nor Fait ro Reap Tus. — It is supposed
that. there are 53,000,000 children in the United
States. at the present time. Only about one-half of
these are enrolled in some kind of a religious school.
And what is still worse is this that the enrolment is
growing less from year to-year. In 1916 the Prot-
estant Sunday-schools and parochial schools were
attended by about 22,000,000 pupils, but in 1920
the enrolment had decreased to. considerably less
than 16,000,000. And just think how little those
children get that do attend! Outside of the Lu-
theran churches, which give their children a regular
course of religious teaching, Protestant churches
give their children only 24 hours of religious teach-
ing per year. With this poor showing compare
what the Jews do. The Jewish child in the United
‘States receives annually 335 hours of religious in-
struction, while the average Catholic child gets 200
hours teaching in religion. ‘The religious instruc-
tion of the children in most Sunday-schools is
carried on in a poverty-stricken manner. IT venture
to say that most Protestant churches expect their
Sunday-schools to be self-supporting. And even if
the ‘contributions gathered from the pupils be con-
sidered, I am sure that there are hundreds of

churehes that spend twice as much for music or for *

their janitor as they do for their Sunday-schools.
The average janitor costs the average church $1.07
per member, but the average Protestant Sunday-
school costs only 48 cents per child. What a wonder-

fully promising home mission field is here left un- °

cultivated — the religious training of the child.

Cuina.— The resources of China are incom-
putable. ‘Think of her man-power. Over four hun-
dred million people, or every fourth person in the
world a Chinese. Incomprehensible! One province,

Shensi, is said to posséss enough coal to supply the’

world for some hundreds of years. China is the
greatest copper-producing nation in the world.
After 5,000 years tilling the soil, there are yet un-
heard-of possibilities through better methods in
agriculture. Chinese farms average two to four
crops each year. — Gospel-seed sown* in Chinese
hearts-produces wonderful increase. ‘This field also
is limitless. There is ample room for consecrated
preachers, physicians, teachers, and gospel laborers

in all branches of Christian service. And open:

doors everywhere beckon missionaries to come.

Borivian Inprans.—An estimated census gives
Bolivia a population of 2,500,000, fifty per cent. of
whom are Indians. Around large tenters such as

Siam, West Africa.

La Paz, Oruro, and Cochabamba, the Indian is
semi-civilized. In the interior he is wild and
savage. ‘They all live in the most crude and un-
sanitary manner. In all this country little or no
interest is taken in the uplifting of the Indians.
They are valued in the money they represent to
their owners. A Bolivian statesman has said: “It
is no exaggeration to say that the present condition
of the Bolivian Indian is a national disgrace, and
a terrible indictment of the good name of the Re-
public. It is therefore a sacred duty on the part of
every good Bolivian to look for the means of doing
away with this disgrace, and converting into active
forces the thousands of Indians who to-day are a
mill-stone around the neck of a civilized society.”

MissIoNartes GOING INTO ALL THE WoRLD. —
During 1918 one hundred and three adult mission-
aries left American shores for fields in distant lands,
sent forward by a single mission board. It will be
recognized that this was the most. difficult year of
the World War in carrying forward foreign mission-
work, so many young men of appointed age being
involved in the military draft., Yet from among
the exempted classes, such as ministerial students
and evangelists, this fine corps of recruits were able
to take their places in heathen lands in the effort
to benefit their fellowmen by helping them see the
vision of the uplifted Cross. ‘These’ mission ap-
pointees took ship to the following lands: Bolivia,
Tahiti, Fiji, Jamaica, Honduras, Cuba, Hawaiian
Islands, Korea, China, India, Porto Rico, Peru,
Argentina, Manchuria, Brazil, Guatemala, Japan,
Salvador, Philippines, Sumatra, Trinidad, Haiti,
England and the Canal Zone
also come into the list. During the year mission- -
work of this board was opened in Siam and the
border of Belgian Congo, Central Africa; and a
medical mission was begun on the border of Tibet,
where a printing plant will also be established.
Also a mission was staked out in an interior and
unentered portion of Belgian Congo.

Procress. — A century ago there were less than
a hundred missionaries in heathen\lands. When
the Werld War broke out,. there were more than
twenty-five thousand foreign missionaries, and a
total of 112,000 native workers in non-Christian
lands. Mission societies have increased, until prac-
tically every Protestarit denomination is repre-
sented. At the time of the Edinburgh World Mis-
sionary’ Conference, 994 societies were reported ta
hav: entered the great heathen fields. F.J.L, -