The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 44

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44 THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

at this convention. It is said that at this conven-
tion a greater number of church-bodies was repre-
sented than at any meeting of a similar kind ever
held in North America. Preceding conferences of
a similar character have been held as follows: The
Missionary Conference in London, in 1888; the
Ecumenical Conference in New York, in 1900; the
World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, in
1910. The purpose of the recent convention at
Washington, as outlined by its organizers, is “for
the information and inspiration of the churches of
Canada and the United States. It will be an edu-
cational, not a deliberative or legislative, assembly.
It will not deal with questions and problems of
administration on the mission-field. Its messages
will be designed to enlarge the interest and deepen
the conviction of the Christian people at the home
base as to their foreign mission responsibilities and
obligations.” Attendance was limited to delegates
appointed by foreign mission boards and societies.
Among these were officers and members of foreign
mission boards, pastors and laymen, general church
officials, professors, editors, foreign missionaries at
home on furlough, student volunteers, and other
candidates for the foreign field. The unionistic
character of the convention made it impossible for
our mission boards to be represented.

Roxssins, IxtL.— Did you ever hear of the vil-
lage of Robbins? Most of you have not, we are
sure. Well, Robbins is about fourteen miles from
down-town Chicago. It is a town of which ninety-
nine per cent. of the population consists of Negroes.
A large number of colored preachers and teachers
live there. It is a village by and for colored people
and has colored municipal officials. And here is
what we may be excused for calling the “punch”
in this item: The police department of the village
has been discharged because of lack of work. The
village has 2,000 inhabitants, but it has no jail.
This should be interesting reading for us all, but
especially for those of our fellow-citizens who have
a weakness of ascribing every crime committed in
the community to Negroes, if there are any about,
and who are ever prone to paraphrase the expression
of Nathanael into, “What good can come of the
Negro?”

Procress iv Our Necro Missions. — The an-
nual statistical report of Director Drewes is most
gratifying to every friend of our Negro Missions.
In some respects it shows that previous records have
been broken in 1924. Here is a summary of the

' Director’s tabulations: Congregations, 54; preach-
" ing-places, 11; baptized members, 4,377; confirmed

members, 2,475; schools, 36; pupils, 2,962; Sun-
day-school enrolment, 3,340; baptisms, 344, of
which 174 were in Alabama; confirmed, 357 per-
sons (197 in Alabama) ; guests at the Lord’s Table,
5,587 (2,202 in Alabama) ; marriages, 25; burials,
47; total contributions by members of our Negro
mission churches, $28,575.03.

A Few Auaska Irems.— The United States
Government conducts seventy-five schools for both
Indians and Eskimos in Alaska, with an enrolment
of approximately 4,000 pupils. The Government
also maintains two orphanages for children left
parentless by the influenza epidemic which swept
over the country a few years ago. — The Episcopal
girls’ school at Anoik, Alaska, was totally destroyed
by fire. It caught fire from the smudge started out-
side to drive off mosquitoes. The building was an
old one; plans had already been under way to re-
place it. The fire has now hastened the carrying
out of these plans. — Five hundred States the size
of Rhode Island could be set inside of Alaska.
Alaska is larger than the whole original thirteen
States of the Union combined. — The Canadian ex-
plorer, S. C. Scotte, recently discovered a remark-
able valley near the Yukon River and about 500
miles inland. This valley is about twenty miles
long and three miles wide and is filled with thou-
sands of warm springs, which keep the whole valley
at a remarkably high temperature. Though sur-
rounded by snow-capped mountains on every side,
it seldom freezes in this garden of the Lord. Grass,
flowers, and fruit abound here in the summer
months. No wonder Mr. Scotte was tempted to call
this valley the Garden of Eden.

Firry YEars or Misstons.— Every year the
Watchman Magazine, organ of the Seventh-day Ad-
ventists, publishes a special missionary number.
Its last missionary issue is of an anniversary char-
acter, since this denomination recently celebrated
the fiftieth anniversary of its foreign mission enter-
prise, though their mission-work in heathen coun-
tries really began only thirty years ago. Before
this, their “foreign missions” were largely carried
on in Christian countries, where they were busily
engaged, in not a few instances, in drawing mem-
bers of other churches into their fold —a poor kind
of mission-work, indeed! If it were not for this
spirit of proselyting, the activity of the Seventh-day
Adventists along missionary lines would be worthy
of emulation. Though numerically one of the
smaller church-bodies of our country, they almost
equal the Moravians in the missionary activity
which they display. They are working in 194 dif-