The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 4

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4: THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

show; from Cape Comorin in the south to the
Himalayas in the north, even up to the very doors
of Afghanistan, Beloochistan, and Tibet, India has
been covered with a great net-work of mission-
stations. Burma and Siam are no longer closed,
and where ‘Adoniram Judson once suffered so
shamefully for the Gospel’s sake, the Word of God
has to-day free course. China, the most populous
of all heathen lands, the home of no less than one-
fourth of the whole human race, has been traversed
in every direction by missionary pioneers since the
days of Morrison and has Christian missions in
many of its provinces. Japan, where only about
forty years ago at many of the entrances of towns
and villages there stood a large notice-board, on
which in bold, heavy, black strokes had been writ-
ten: “The evil sect of Christians is firmly forbidden
as hitherto!” — this same Japan has been largely
occupied by American and English missionary so-
cieties and has a Jarge number of evangelical Chris-
tian congregations.

Australasia.

Even the lowest and lowliest of human beings,
the aborigines ‘of Australia, have not remained un-
reached by the story of man’s redemption, and not

a few stations are to be found along the coasts and

even some in the interior of New Guinea. The
largest and most populous of the islands of the
Indian Archipelago and the island world of the
Pacific, once the home of savage cannibals and
the scene of beastly orgies, is almost entirely Chris-
. tianized.
America.

In America the great plains of British America,

as well as its forest fastnesses, have been visited by

the messengers of the Cross, who have opened many ,

missions for the native Indians. In our own
United States, millions of Negroes have been gath-
ered into Christian congregations, and of the
numerous Indian tribes of our land many have

been converted to Christ and have awakened new ,

hope for the future. In Central America the
Gospel net has been thrown out farther and farther,
and in the West Indies the seed of the Word has
taken firm root. In South America, hitherto so
greatly neglected by the forces of the Gospel,
powerful assaults have been made upon paganism,
and the hardy soldiers of the Cross have almost
everywhere pushed from the coasts into the heart
of the land and are rapidly pushing on to the upper
reaches of the Amazon in Brazil and the: mountain
fastnesses of Bolivia and Peru. F.J.L.

Immanuel Colored Lutheran Church,
Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Beginning.

When in August, 1922, the Synodical Confer-
ence met here in Cincinnati, the Rev. Peay, one of
our colored missionaries in the South, introduced
the undersigned to a former schoolmate of his, a
Mrs. Livingston, who had attended our Immanuel
College at Greensboro and had been confirmed by
the sainted Pastor Bakke. Arrangements were
made for a meeting at Mrs. Livingston’s house on
one of the following Sunday afternoons. When the
appointed hour came, eight adult Negroes, includ-
ing Mr. and Mrs. Livingstone and the latter’s
brother, had assembled. ‘This first service proved
to be the beginning of our Colored Mission in

Interior of the Cincinnati Chapel.

Cincinnati. These meetings were continued for
eighteen months, at first in the home of Mr. and
Mrs. Livingston, and later in the house of Dr. and
Mrs. Beverly. Eighteen months is a reasonable time
to try out the sincerity of a company of people
seeking light and truth, people who for a long time
already had become disgusted with emotionalism.
and a shallow, lifeless “Gospel”-preaching on which
they and their race had been fed by incompetent
and selfish “shepherds.” At last they had found
something stable, something that really satisfied
the inner longings of the soul, a message that stirred
them not only for an hour or two, but one that
cheered’: and strengthened them throughout the
week. And this all being brought to them by a
representative of a Church practically unknown to
them, the Lutheran Church. They began asking
questions. The desired information was given.-
Tracts, lectures, the Colored Lutheran, the Witness,
and, above all, God’s Word as found in Luther's.
Catechism finally so cemented a number of these-