The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 142

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142

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

your message, the responsibility would be mine; but
since I do want to hear it, the responsibility is
yours.”

“The Bolivian Indian Mission.” — This society,
one of the seven referred to above, emphasizes its
educational and medical work. By means of the
Gospel the missionaries try to reach the children
in their schools, and with their medical work on
adults and children they are trying to make a path
for the Gospel to the hearts of the older people.
This is, however, not to be understood as though
they were neglecting evangelistic work. So far this
society has occupied five main villages and is work-
ing with a corps of thirty-nine laborers.

A Museum as a Missionary Factor. — The
Christian University at Tsinanfu, Shantung, China,
has a museum which was visited by more than half
a million people in one year. The missionary in
charge reports that sixty-five per cent. listened to
an address on the Gospel while in the museum.
Some idea of what opportunity is offered by the
museum for Gospel-preaching may be learned from

‘the fact that in the small lecture-hall no less than
2,468 Gospel addresses were given in one year. In
addition to these, 225 Sunday lectures and addresses
were given.

Bible Reading in China and Japan. —In 1923
the American Bible Society brought into circulation
in these two countries 2,868,605 copies of the Bible,
as against 2,395,000 in the United States. The in-
creasing circulation of the Bible is, no doubt, a
hopeful sign ,and bespeaks a growing interest in
Christianity among the people of these countries.

A Real Offering of Sacrifice. — A missionary re-
ports from Africa how the boys and girls of a
mission-school there contributed to the Japanese
Relief Fund by saving from their daily allowance
of rice till they had saved the sum of $36.62. He
adds that this idea was original with these children,
who were removed from heathenism only by a few
years. It is unnecessary to make any comment.

Lepers in India. — The curse of leprosy still is
upon India. Of the 100,000 lepers in that country
less than 6,000 are cared for.in asylums.

The Heartlessness of Heathenism. — The mis-
sion doctor, out for a sick-call in the city, stops at
the sight of a funeral procession winding its way
to the banks of the Ganges. Can that tiny bundle

_ beside the stiff form of the woman on the bier be
alive? He puts the question. “Yes, just four days
old, but how could we feed it? Better give it to
the sacred river. Only a girl anyhow! Surely the

doctor may have it.” With that the small bundle
is transferred from the dead stretcher to the capable
arms of the doctor.

A Change of Opinion.— At the beginning of
the nineteenth century the British East India Com-
pany, then the virtual ruler of India, said: The
sending of missionaries into our Hastern possessions
is the maddest, most expensive, most unwarranted
project that was ever. proposed by a lunatic enthu-
siast.” At the close of the nineteenth century the

Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal said: “In my judg-.

ment Christian missionaries have done more lasting
good to the people of India than all other agencies
combined.”

A Large Foreign Mission Budget. — The Re-
formed Church in America, a body of Swiss and
Dutch origin and not to be confounded with the
much larger Reformed Church in the United States,
numbers only 143,543 communicant members. And
yet this small body has set aside in its budget for
this year the large sum of $1,100,000 for foreign
missions. This is over $7.50 for each member.

Home Missions. — That was surely a most won-
derful and successful home mission campaign which
resulted in the confirmation of no less than ninety-
three adults on one Sunday by Pastor A. W.
Brauer, of Keystone, Iowa. . Keystone, by the -way,
is a village of only 700 people and -has several
churches, so we understand. Among those received
by Pastor Brauer were also sixteen who had not
been baptized. We venture to say that there were:
those in Keystone who laughed at the idea of doing
successful mission-work in that town where there
had been churches for years. No doubt, more than
one cold-water pourer told Pastor Brauer that he
was an unreasonable enthusiast. And probably even
now that the bountiful harvest has been gathered
there are those who shake their heads.

The Beginning in Japan. — The first Christian
church in Japan was organized in Yokohama,
March 10, 1892, with eleven members. To-day
there are 164,000 baptized Christians in Japan.

A Strenuous Life. — A missionary reports: “We-

have just finished our tour among the 400 villages
connected with. the seventeen outstations of this
field with its million: souls.”

Where People Do Not Live in Plenty. — Out of

every hundred of India’s teeming millions seventy-
two depend upon the soil for a living. Twenty
dollars is said to be an average income for a family,

and it is estimated that there are millions who-
never know what it means not to be hungry. The-