The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 34

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34

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

Reclaiming Christ’s Heritage.

III.

How about the territory generally spoken of as
being occupied by Christian missionaries? So
much has been said and written about the number
of missionaries already sent out and missionary sta-
tions established in countries wholly or practically
heathen a hundred years ago that many Christians
have an idea that this so-called occupied missionary
territory, at least, is efficiently and sufficiently taken

David Livingstone,
the Great African Explorer and Missionary.

care of by the Gospel forces of the Christian
Church. ;

In round numbers the non-Christian world at
the present time has a population of almost 1,200
million people. Among this vast population about
25,000 Christian workers from various Christian
countries are laboring. In these 25,000 Christian
workers are included ordained and unordained per-
sons, men, wives, unmarried women, teachers, phy-
Sicians, printers, and industrial workers. This
would mean, upon an average, one foreign worker

- for eyery 50,000 persons and about one ordained

missionary for 150,000 people. To put it into con-
crete form, if would mean one foreign worker for
about two average Middle West counties in our

’ than Africa, namely, Asia.

country and possibly one ordained worker for six
of our Middle West counties. ‘To use another com-
parison, each ordained worker in the foreign mis-
sion field has a territory to take care of about three-
fourths the population of a Congressional district
in our country. But even these figures look far
more favorable than conditions actually are, for
we must remember that among the foreign Chris-
tian laborers are many married women and many
single women whose labors are confined to work
done among women and children. Nor must we
forget that many of these foreign Christian workers
are physicians, nurses, printers, agriculturists, and
industrial workers. Then, too, it must be remem-
bered that many circumstances prevent the equal
distribution of these missionary forces. In some
centers, such as Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras,
Shanghai and Hankow, a fairly adequate force of
Christian workers may be found, while in many
other sections of India and China there are large
areas where not a single Christian worker can be
found. And what is true of India and China is
true of Japan and, in still greater measure, of
Africa and other missionary countries.

The above figures refer only to the foreign
workers in the heathen world. To be fair in the
presentation of conditions, it will be necessary to
say that at the present time there are probably as
many as 100,000 native workers of both sexes Jabor-
ing together with the foreign missionaries in the
various non-Christian countries of the world. This
would give us a missionary force of not less than
125,000 Christian workers of all kinds among a
pagan population of almost 1,200 million people,
or a worker for every 10,000 people. ‘Translated
into concrete terms, it would mean some kind of
a Christian worker for about half of an average
Middle West county of our country.

Africa.

There is only one continent greater in size
It has approximately
12,000,000 square miles of territory to Asia’s area
of 16,000,000 square miles. Here is what Bishop
Hartzell of the Methodist Church writes to show
the comparative size of Africa: “There is room
enough on the lower end of the continent for the
whole of the United States; Europe, with her many
states and hundreds of millions, can be placed
on one side of Central Africa; China, with her
400,000,000, could be accommodated on the other
half of Central Africa, and there is room for all
India, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland in the lower